Published on February 18, 2020
Fancast update
Janel Parrish as Alice (first appeared in Part 1)
[See notes below for other fancast ideas]
…..
Chapter 34: College, Part 4
..
Previously:
"We can't have this conversation again."[Gisele states]
"Can't or shouldn't?"
"Hasn't this trip taught you anything?"
"If you never liked me like that just tell me," Han starts, "Tell me you used Becky as an excuse to let me down easy. I'll still be around. I'll still be your friend. I'm not the kind of guy who will cut you off for rejecting me. You should know that by now."
"I do have feelings for you," Gisele swallows the lump in her throat, "And I think they're only growing and that's a problem when you are around."
"Remember what you said after summer school when we were at the beach. How your life stopped? I feel that way sometimes too since I came back to L.A. and you made me…you make me feel like I can start again."
Gisele felt like the walls of the mountain cabin were closing in on her as Han moved closer.
"I want to be with you, Gisele. No matter what," Han cups Gisele's face, "Tell me you don't want it too."
Han had to know and he couldn't think of any other way, if she was leaving this could be his last chance.
Han kisses Gisele with everything he has then.
….
Solo
Gisele kisses Han back, moaning when their tongues meet. Han pulls Gisele in closer as his hands make their way to her waist, while Gisele encircles her arms over his shoulders and to the back of his head.
"Han?" Gisele worries, stopping with a hand to the nape of his neck.
"What's wrong?" Han places his hands securely behind her back.
"I don't want to a placeholder until you decide you want to be with Becky again."
"Becky and I haven't been a couple for ages. She'd want me to be happy and you too," Han pleas softly, "She's a safety net that I can't let go of and she deserves more than settling for someone and so do I. It took you to make me truly see it."
"What if this isn't real?" Gisele asks quietly, "And I'm confusing a love of friendship for something more?"
"Don't you think you owe it to yourself to try? We can do this."
Han kisses Gisele again, Gisele can't fight it until she pictures Han and Becky in a similar embrace. She's only ever seen them kiss once, and both were drunk on Becky's birthday, but now that image was burned in her mind, and she wonders if another would emerge from the other night when they were all high on pills.
"Tell me you didn't sleep with her on Thanksgiving. Tell me you didn't consider it this weekend."
"What do you want me say? I was working out my feelings," Han continues his soft tone, caressing Gisele's face, "Does it matter now?"
"I think it always will," Gisele answers just as softly as well, "You have so much history."
"I don't want to be with Becky. I was going to tell her but then she got high again and had to leave because of the weather," Han argues.
"Could you truly ever love me if I drove her away from you?"
"That's not fair…you won't budge from that being the only outcome."
"You don't know how hard it is for me to walk away from this. How much I thought about you when I was in Poland, wishing you were there with me. I can't lose you and Becky in my life, not when you two have become the two most important people to me."
"I love you, Gisele. I can't imagine my life without you, but all you seem to think about is a life without me. You've been saying it since summer, when I ask about being with someone. I don't want you to be scared of losing me no matter what happens in the future."
"That's where I am right now," Gisele moves Han's hands from her face to clutch them, "I cannot explain. I just feel it."
"What now?" Han backs away from Gisele, "You can't be around me?"
"I don't know."
"I'll see you tomorrow for the ride back then," Han says as he heads to his cabin room.
..
-Early March, a week later-
Gisele's old military boss was coming to LA so Gisele arranged to meet up with her to discuss a job position on a task force first offered back in August. Gisele has been thinking about it since then, and now the possibility was more likely as graduation neared.
So Gisele visited the shooting range for a few days to hone her skills and see where she stood since her military days. She was about as sharp as she ever was.
The pair met for dinner.
"…everybody visits Los Angeles. Hollywood, Disneyland, sun, but not everyone stays," the fellow Israeli swirls her glass of wine.
"I'm not tired of it yet if that's where you're getting to," Gisele replies, going back to her cheese and fruit plate.
"I can tell you more, but you have to feel it. Come work with us for a month, after you graduate college, and you can stay or go or wait and call me again if you're ready."
Her old boss didn't bring it up again at dinner, but Gisele was tempted.
..
-The Friday before St. Patrick's Day-
The lights flickered on at the community youth center gym.
"So green," Gisele reacts to the shock of color assaulting her eyes, four-leaf clovers abound.
"Some of the girls wanted a Valentine's dance but the funding hadn't come through," Mia informs.
"I miss the fun things about dances, the dancing," Gisele pulls up a table, "but not the hormones stuff."
"It's so trivial when we look back now," Mia adds placing a table cloth on the table, "But when you're fifteen that's your whole life."
"And don't try to tell them otherwise," Gisele laughs, pulling up chairs.
"Forget about it."
-Two hours later-
"Surprise!" A group of teens, chaperones, and Gisele yell as Mia's return to the gym after a planned distraction to set up the party for Mia's new job.
The room was half transformed, redecorated with shamrocks cut into diamond shapes and balloons written with Mia's name and well wishes, and a banner that said 'Good luck Mia!'
Mia hugged and high-fived the group as they chanted: "Speech. Speech. Speech."
..
-The next night-
"Need a break?" Mia asks Gisele who had her textbooks sprawled over her bed, "Party at Letty's."
"I might be done for the night," Gisele stretches her tired limbs.
It felt weird studying without Han, especially when Mia picked up snacks for her, including some of Han's favorites. During the last finals and midterms she studied with Matteo, but she had broken up with the man before the ski trip, and Matteo wasn't a group studier anyway she had learned.
"Even better. In-N-Out run?"
"You read my mind," Gisele exaggerates by reaching over and giving Mia a big hug.
Gisele and Mia sit outside the fast food burger place's picnic table, forks digging into the "Animal" fries.
"I think it's for good this time," Mia and Gisele were discussing Dom moving out to move in with Letty.
"Good for them," Gisele responds.
"The mortgage is paid off on our house so I think he feels he can let me handle the property tax," Mia shares, "I almost sold the house a few years ago. Dom got into trouble so he had to lay low and I just wanted to run away when times got tough."
"You didn't," Gisele takes another bite of her burger.
"I dropped pre-med though. Even if I ended up at a hospital it was under my terms," Mia smiles.
..
-At the party-
The post race party was in full swing. Mia tells Gisele that the parties are rarer now that they are all older but tend to crop around more as they prep for Race Wars.
And then too soon Gisele sees Han laughing, beer in hand and the other around a short and busty woman in high heels whispering in his ear.
Gisele turns sharply moving away from the scene.
"I'm going to go," Gisele whispers to Mia who was chatting with Letty in the kitchen.
"Give me a sec to say goodbye," Mia replies.
"No. Stay." Gisele objects, "I really need to be alone right now."
Gisele slips out, going straight to her car when she gets home.
…
Seoul-Oh
Han was out with a few buddies from his high school, catching up as they played pool over beers. They were young professionals in the suit-and-tie for work crowd now, and perhaps Han was going to join them soon.
"Could you take a look at something for me," Han addresses his lawyer friend, "It's a business venture and I use some professional advice."
"Yeah? What it is?"
"Cars. Racing to be exact."
"What else," the man chuckles, "bring a six pack by on the weekend and we'll take a look."
"No work talk," the banker says joining them.
"Twins and another set to come, talk about efficiency brother," the lawyer teases the banker, "Min wants another already, but we're stretched thin as is. What do they say? Grass is greener on the other side? Is this right Mr. Bachelor?" The man addresses Han.
"I thought you'd be the first with the hookups you've had," the accountant and almost full-time writer over by the pool table remarks as he lines up a shot.
Han just shrugs, continuing to down the glass of beer in his hand and signaling the waitress for another.
..
-Early April-
Han's parents insisted on going out for his birthday, not asking but his mom telling him to meet the family at a restaurant.
"When was the last time you had a girlfriend?" One of his aunt's asks.
"Oh he's too busy with school," another relative chimed in.
"Did you get your acceptance letters yet?" Han's mom inquires about his graduate school prospects.
"Waiting on one more."
"We're very proud of you for turning your life around."
"Thanks, Umma."
"What about the bartender? The new one."
"Her name is Park I heard. You need a Korean girl."
"Not those tall-tall model-y ones we hear about," another cousin tuts.
"One you date only, the other is a girlfriend type…"
Han tries his best to look discreetly over, and who he saw was a familiar face. His ex-girlfriend, Alice Parker, not Park, who was Chinese.
"I'll go talk to her if you leave her alone," Han tells them in Korean, proceeding to walk over to the bar.
"Hey."
"Hi," the short woman looked up and stopped short, "What can I get you?"
"Whiskey. Rocks."
Han had tried his best to remain neutral when he broke up with Alice, but an argument ensued and Han had confessed that he may have had feelings for another woman. And the cageyness of this statement seemed to anger Alice moreso than if he owned up to actually having feelings for that other woman.
"First off. I'm a little drunk. And my birthday," Han continues when his drink is in front of him, "I'm here with my family and my aunts are being aunts, so I said I'd come talk to you so hopefully they don't come and hound you trying to set us up."
"What a line that would have been," Alice scoffs before attending to a customer that just arrived.
"Was I that bad a boyfriend?" Han asks when she returns to get him a water.
"If felt like you were concerned about being a good boyfriend than just being my boyfriend."
"Cause of what happened on our first date? Or didn't."
"We were together for a month. What can I judge in that short of time?" Alice shrugs, "There was that first date thing, my birthday, school, and work all happening. And by the end you already made up your mind about breaking up with me. It didn't matter if there was someone else or I was too young like you worried about initially."
"Good to know…" Han answers quietly.
..
-Days later-
Han packed the last of the things into his jeep for a fishing trip with his dad and a few family members when he reenters his old house he sees his dad collapsed on the kitchen floor.
"Appa?" Han tries to stay calm, "Umma! Call 911!"
They rush to the hospital in the ambulance.
Han stands in silence as he listens to his mother tell the doctors of his dad's medical condition.
Han stays silence until his dad is cleared to go home.
"That long?"
His dad has been sick sense the end of last summer seeing specialists and getting second opinions from the best doctors.
"Your dad wanted to wait and tell you," Han's mom responds in Korean, "Until you graduated college."
"June? Or in three to four years?" Han replies angrily, "This is why you were in Korea for so long?"
"He's better."
"Now you know that. I could have been there with you guys all that time."
Han storms to his car, unpacking the fishing gear. He really wanted to go for a drive, but he couldn't get himself to leave his dad.
..
So Low
"How much money do you think I can make from Race Wars," Gisele asks Mia when they are working at the Toretto Market & Café, Gisele sweeping as Mia mans the cash register.
Mia only worked on some weekends now that she had a steady nine-to-five job. Gisele suspected it was to catch a glimpse of the racer that started to hang around on weekends now that the blondie knew Mia's schedule. But Gisele didn't think she was in any position to dispense love advice at the moment, no matter how good of a friend she was to Mia.
"How much do you need?" Mia chuckles, "We can rob a bank."
"Enough so they won't gouge me on student loans."
"What about your grants?" Mia gets serious.
"The school in Chicago offered me the best financial package," Gisele relays, "and I'm on the waiting list for the other. And if I wait and I don't get enough then I miss out on Chicago."
"I know you've won more races so far than you've lost, but be careful," Mia says slowly, "It's a high, but the lows can be very low."
"I could do Chicago," Gisele muses, "I applied there didn't I?"
..
-A week later-
"…that's L-U-E," Han told the receptionist at the private medical treatment facility.
The young man checked his ID and gave him the proper passes. Han's mom was already there waiting for his father and the doctor.
"You don't sleep?" Han's mom asks as she observes her son slumping on the chair.
"School, work," Han unslumps and fixes his hair, "Just worried about, Appa."
The door opens then as Han's dad and the doctor enter the room.
"His results are improving," Dr. Gillian holds the chart to her chest as she address the three, "Mr. Lue is stable and I can approve air travel, but like I said with this medical condition anything can happen. Be alert if he gets especially tired, and that's the best we can do right now."
Han spots Mia Toretto going over papers with another doctor as he waits for his parents. He steps outside, to avoid her perhaps.
-Moments later-
Mia just started as the office administrator at the medical facility and this was already Mr. Lue's third visit, but the first she's seen Han there.
"You'd think working here would turn people off something like cigarettes forever," Mia comments as she stomps on a stray butt.
"I think it makes me want one even more," Han responds softly, somberly.
"They have snacks in the cafeteria," Mia shares, "I just restocked. You like Chex mix, right? The sandwiches aren't bad either."
Han nods, "Thanks for letting me know."
"It's a long drive and people forget," Mia says, putting a comforting hand on Han's arm.
Brian, a blonde man walked up to them, giving a kiss hello to Mia. Han recognized him as the man who worked at The Racer's Edge, he'd raced the guy once as well. They exchanged hellos and goodbyes and Han watched them walk away hand in hand.
..
-The end of April-
Gisele was browsing at the farmer's market when she hears her name called.
"I'm so lucky to run into you. I was going to call," An Asian woman continued, "How've you been?"
It was Han's mom.
"Good. Just getting through school. And you?"
"Busy. Always. You know. I wanted to ask if you would like to watch Maxo for the summer. And house sit for us."
"Maybe Han wants to do it," Gisele deflects, "he always says he misses him."
"Han is coming with us," Han's mom relays, "to Hawaii and Korea."
"Oh," Gisele says slowly, trying to process this new information as she replied, "Can I get back to you?"
"Of course. We leave after graduation."
..
-Later that night-
Gisele was at Han's door. She knocked.
"Hi," Gisele says as Han stands there surprised, "We need to talk."
…..
End notes:
I'm kind of setting up Gisele to have a variation of the F4 plot, as Cipher is connected to Chicago/Shaws, and Owen to Braga who is connected to Gisele; or Israel/the Mossad then to a F4 like plot. Or Gisele is just straight up "normal" in this AU.
Brian is finally here but I still have this weird thing about including him in a major role because Paul Walker is dead in real life. I have a headcanon backstory for Brian in this AU but I don't know if it needs to be stated in specifics. What you need to know is that a variation of the first film's plot plays out from Brian's intro to the summer where Race Wars takes place
I intended to have more bonding (racing and cars in particular) between Han and/or Gisele and the team, but that is kind of "sacred" to Brian's character and he's here now so I only have the bare minimum of bonding and some similar aspects, as parallels and callbacks (with different characters like the "read the brochure" line) are part of these films. So I'm not "stealing" the storylines or whatever. Maybe that's why the 2F2F people aren't in this (yet?).
Fancast possibilities:
Han's parents are the mom and dad from the TV show "Kim's Convenience" or the lower class parents in the movie "Parasite." One or the other is the aunt from New Year's Eve that will appear again.
The Parasite dad looks like he could be related to Sung Kang to me but apparently/allegedly he's the same age as Vin Diesel, and only five years older than Sung Kang so that kind of threw me off, even if this happens a lot in films. People just age differently and makeup helps them look older or younger too.
And to that, Kristen Bell (Becky) is 8 years younger than Sung Kang but I felt okay aging her up as 2F2F aged up Tyrese Gibson five years so Roman and Brian are the same age (based on the DMV records shown, and being high school mates). I want to say Becky is a year younger than Han with Sung Kang aged down. For precedent, they show Dom's age as 40(going on 41 perhaps) on the wanted file in F8 when Vin Diesel was 49/50 years old, so Han can be up to ten years younger than the actor who plays him?
Maybe postgraduate graduate would have fit Becky better. I used "Veronica Mars the movie" as an age reference. The character is about to become a lawyer at by 28. And Becky and Han are anywhere from 28 to early thirties in age.
I go back and forth on whether to include this Han as the same from "Better Luck Tomorrow" but if you want to imagine that Han's old friends are the BLT cast then do so, same with his cousin in "Part 3," who is Virgil or Earl from Tokyo Drift.
Sung Kang co-starred with Janel Parrish in "4 Wedding Planners" and I think the Han/Alice dynamic is similar to their characters in that movie and moreso if they continued to date.
